The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1887-12-27
" GIVE US A CHRIST"
The Cry of Assyrian, Persian and
Egyptian Civilizations
FOR FOUR THOUSAND YEARS

1 l.
cornet were unusually powerful, and Mrs.
Florence Rice-Knox sang three solos. The
thousands of people who packed the church
and all the approaches, seemed to join in the
great chorus:
"IIe shall reign from pole to pole
With illinitabe sway;
He shall reign, when, like scroll,
| Yonder heavens have passed away"
! Rev. L. Dewitt Talmage, d. D., took as the
| subject of his sermon, 1.-THE Barn and Its Sur
roundings." His text was taken from Luke
| H. 10: 1.-THE shepherds said one to another,
| let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see
| this thing which is come to pass" DR.. Tai
mage said:
| One thousand years of the worlds existence
rolled painfully and YEARLY along, and no
| Christ. Two thousand years, and no Christ.
| Three thousand years, and no Christ. Four
| thousand years, and no Christ. GIVE us q
| Christ" had cried Assyrian and Persian and
| Chaldean and Egyptian civilizations, but the
| lips of the earth and the lips of the sky made
| no answer. The world had already been
| affiuent of genius. Among poets had appeared
| Homer and Thespis and Aristophanes and
| Sophocles and Euripides and Alexis Hschy-
| lus, yet no Christ to be the most poetic figure
| of the centuries. Among historians had APP
| peaTed Herodotus and Xenophon and Thu
| cydides, but no Christ from whom all history
| was to date backward and forward-B. G. and
| ID. Among conquerors Camillus and Man.
| nus anu lloS dilu %AdnllppuS anu I1aDnlDal
| and Scipio and Pompey and Caesar, yet no
| Christ who was to be oonqueror of earth and
| heaven.
But the slow century and the slow year
| and the slow month aad the slow hour at last
| arrived The world had had mathis or CON
| certs IN the morning and yespers or concerts
| in the evening, but now it is to have concert
| at midnight. The black window shutters of q
| December night were thrown open, and some
| of the best singers of world where they all
| sing stood there, and putting back the drapery
| OF cloud chanted peace anthem, until all the
echoes of hill ahd valley applauded and en-
| cored the halleluiah chorus.
| At last the world has a Christ and Just The
Christ 1t needs. Come, let us go into that
| Christmas scene, as though we had never be-
| fore Worshjpped at the manger. Here is q
| Madonna worth looking at. wonder not that
| the most frequent name in all lands and in all
| Christian centuries is Mary. And there are
Marys i'll palaces and Marys in cabins, and
| though German and French and italian and
| English pronounce it differently, they are all
namesakes of the one whom we find in q bed
| of straw with her pale face against the soft
| cheek of Christ in the night Of the nativity
| All the great painters have tried on canvas
| to present Mary and her child and the
| incidents of thet most famous night
Of the worlds history. Raphael in three
| different masterpieces, celebrated them. Tin
| toret and Guirlandio surpassed themselves in
| the Alteration of the Magi. Corregio needed
| to do nothing more than his Madonna to be-
come immortal. The Madonna of the Lily,
| by Leonardo da Vinci, will kindle the admira-
| tion of all ages. Mefi1le never wen greater
| triumph by his pencil than in his presentation
| of the Holy Family. But all the galleries of
| Dresden are forgotten when / think of the
| small room OF that gallery containing the Sis
| tine Madonna. Yet all of them were copies of
| st. Matthew's Madonna, and Luke's Ma
| donna, the inspired Madonna OF the old
| book, which we had put into our hands when
| we were infants and that We hope to have Uni
| der our heads when we die.
| Behold, in the first place. that on the first
| night of Christ's life God honored the brute
| creation. You cannot get into that Bethle-
| hem barn without going past the camels. the
mules the dogs the oxen The bruteS of that
| stable heard the first cry of the infant Lord.
| Some OF the old painters represent the oxen
and camelS kneeling that night before the new
| born babe. And we'll might they kneel
Have you ever thought that Christ came
among other things to alleviate the sutferings
of the brute creation? Was it not appro-
pirate that He should during the first
few days and nights Of His life
on earth be surrounded by the dumb beasts
whose moan and plant and believing have for
ages been prayer to God for the arresting of
their fortunes and the righting of their wrongs
1t did not merely "happen So that the unin-
telligent creatures of God should have been
that night in close neighborhood. Not ken
mel in all the centuries, not q birds nest, not
a wornout horse on towpath, not herd freez-
ing i'll the poorly-built cowpen, not freight
| car in summer time bringing the beeyes to
market without water through thousand
miles of agony, not surgeons room witness
| ing the struggles of a rabbit or pigeon or dog
| in the horrors OF vivisection but has an inter-
est in the fact that Christ was born in a stable
| surrounded by brutes. He remembers that
| night, ana the prayer he heard in their pitiful
moan He Will answer i'll the punishment of
those who maltreated the dumb bruteS. They
| surely have as much right i'll this world as we
| have.
In the first chapter of Genesis you may see
that they were placed on the earth before man
was, the fish and fowl created the fifth day,
| and the quadruped the morning of the sixth
day, and man not until the afternoon OF that
| day. The whale, the eagle, the lion, and all
| the lesser creatures of their kind were prede-
| cessors of the human family. They have the
| world by right of possession. They have also
| paid rent for the places they occupied. What
| an army of defense all over the land are the
| faithful watch.dogs. And who..can tell what the
world owes to horse, and camel, and OK for
| transportation? And Robin and Lark have
| by the with cantatas which they have filled
| orchard and forest, more than paid for the few
| grains they have picked up for their suSten-
| ance. When you abuse any creature of God
you strike its creator and you insult the Christ
| who, though he might have been welcomed
into life by princes, and taken his first infan-
| tile slumber amid Tyrian plush and canopied
| couches, and ripping waters from royal aque-
| ducts dripping into basins of ivory and pearl,
| chose 10 be born on the level with a cows
| horn or n camel's hoof, or dogs nostril, that
| he might be the alienation of brutal suffering
| as well as the redeemer of man.
| Standing, then, as / imagine now do in
| that Bethlehem night with an infant Christ
| ON the one side and the speechless creatures of
| God on the other, cry Look out how you
| strike the rowel into that horses side. Take
| off that curbed bit from that bleeding mouth.
| Remove that saddle from that raw back
| Shoot not for fun thal bird that is too small
| for food. Forget not to put water into the
| cage of that canary. Throw out some crumbs
| TO these birds caught too far north in the win
| ter's inclemency Arrest that man who is
| making that one horse draw a load heavy
| enough for three.
| Rush in upon that scene where boys are tor
| turing cat, or transfXing butterfly and
| grasshoppor. Drive not OFF that old
| robin, for her nest is a mother S
| cradle and under her wing there may be three
| or four prima donnas OF the sky in training.
| And in your families and in your schools teach
| the coming generation more mercy than the
/ present generation has ever shown, and in this
| marvellous Bible picture of the nativity, while
/ you point ont to them the angel, show them
| also the camel, ana while they hear the celes-
tial chant let them also hear the cows moan.
| No more did Christ show in the botan-
1 would Nvbnu bo tho lilies -